Up on the chopping block is the band Once Human. This band will soon be known for having Logan Mader (ex-Soulfly and Machinehead) and Lauren Hart who is now the new vocalist for Arch Enemy. Now before the announcement was officially made, I had already put them on the chopping block so when I read that she was the new vocalist, I was already in the middle of this review. Anyway, let’s take a look…………….
The Life I Remember- going into the band I wasn’t really sure what to expect and with this particular album, if I didn’t know the difference between Angela or Lauren, I might say that this is another Arch Enemy record. Now, while the guitar work may not be as technical as Arch Enemy, there is just a touch of black metal. Either way it’s a very interesting album and a great start and I’m gonna go ahead and give it 8/10.
Standouts: Pick Your Poison, You C**T, Ground Zero
Evolution- I feel like this one sort of takes what they had on the last record and just dials it up by 10. It definitely feels a bit more cohesive and structured, but it definitely dials up the aggression. I think this is a great follow up record and I would probably go back to this one more so than the first record. I’ll give this 9/10.
Standouts: Mass Murder Frenzy, Drain, Eye Of Chaos
Stage Of Evolution- so this is their live album and it’s definitely one of those that does a great job of capturing their energy. I feel like live albums or either really good or can sound like garbage and this is a great sounding live record. As I said, it definitely captures their live energy and brutality, but you can tell that the crowd is enjoying themselves. There is even a cover of Machinehead’s Davidian and it actually sounds pretty bad ass. I’ll give this 8.5/10.
Standouts: Passenger, Killer For The Cure, Eye Of Chaos
Scar Weaver- out of the two albums this one probably is the most melodic. You can definitely tell that they’re trying to evolve themselves and there’s actually more clean vocals on this record. But what I like about the clean vocals on this is that they’re not dominating the harsh vocals. I don’t mind clean vocals with harsh vocals as long as it’s done well and on here it most definitely is. I’ll give this one 8.5/10.
Standouts: Deadlock, Deserted, Bottom Feeder
I’m wondering now that Lauren Hart is in Arch Enemy if this means that this band will no longer be making albums or playing shows?? Hopefully not because this is a really great band and it would be a shame if they just stopped doing things. I did read somewhere that the COVID-19 pandemic pretty much halted any further plans but they may have bad but one can always hope. Based on the live album and the YouTube clips that I saw of them, they sound like they put on a great show. But if they don’t, at least there, are these three studio albums, and one live album.
Final Grade: A
Album Rankings:
- Evolution
- Scar Weaver
- The Life I Remember
- Stage Of Evolution
Sinister Reviews 